Technology, Social Networking | featured news

Microsoft Corp is close to buying business software company Yammer Inc for more than $1 billion, according to a source familiar with the details. Microsoft's interest in Yammer, known for its social networking functions, could allow the software giant to beef up its offerings for corporations.

Looking to boost the number of followers you have on your microblog? In China, a country where face often trumphs all in social matters, there’s a quick though dubious solution.

Facebook Inc. investors might finally be catching a break. The social networking titan's stock snapped three straight weeks of losses since going public May 18. The stock surged 6% on Friday -- above $30 a share -- and closed up nearly 11% for the week.

From the looks of this screenshot posted by one of our readers, it appears YouTube is testing a new homepage styled more like the look that recently rolled out on Google+. The current default look rolled out last winter with more focus on channels and social integration, while this new facade features more white space and list of channels and friends to the side. We asked YouTube about the new look and a spokesperson issued a boilerplate statement about experimenting with ways to help users find the videos that are important to them. The statement in full is after the break, however the key part is that they're listening to user feedback so take a close look at this pic and the rest at the source link below then let us (and Google) know what you think.

Facebook went public just about a month ago, and on Friday the Securities & Exchange Commission released its correspondence with the social network in the months between its initial filing and the May 18 IPO.

Proving that Facebook should never become a real country, a recent user vote on privacy changes resulted in ... hardly anyone voting. "Hardly anyone" meant 342,632 votes — a smidgen of a smidgen of the social network's 900 million-plus users worldwide.

Apple's social network Ping will be gone in the next release of iTunes, reports All Things Digital, citing sources close to the company.

A boom in users on the social media site — and the fact that more than two-thirds are women — is attracting political messages to the site best known for recipes, crafts and I-want-that images. In political persuasion, as in marketing, "it's always the next big hot thing," says Zac Moffatt, digital director for Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. "And it's kind of hot right now."

Facebook went public last month on its prospects for growth. But in some areas, the social network's growth rates are already maturing. In particular, Facebook's user growth rate in the U.S. is slowing sharply. In April, U.S. unique visitors to the website increased to 158 million, up just 5% from a year earlier, according to research firm comScore Inc.

Stung by claims in recent weeks that its advertising doesn’t work, Facebook is pouring on the public relations to insist that in fact, ads work just fine on the site. But while some of the claims of critics rest on shaky evidence, many questions about Facebook’s value as an advertising medium remain among the brands that constitute the bulk of all advertising online and off.